


The fumbling rhythm between you and me

by Kyriadamorte



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Finn-centric, Poe Dameron is Finn's go-to romance guide, Rose critiques the First Order's musical tastes, a little bit of both Rose and Finn backstory, but Finn's still a bit new to things, discussion of mandatory fun, headcanon backstory stuff, that hopefully doesn't contradict the books too much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 01:09:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13423515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyriadamorte/pseuds/Kyriadamorte
Summary: Rose has these little…habits, when she's working.~Fill for the prompt by thejadesabre on tumblr: "OK, Finnrose impromptu dancing, please!"





	The fumbling rhythm between you and me

**Author's Note:**

> This can be read as vaguely in the same verse (if a bit earlier) as "The luxury of an old bathtub and tiny soap" (NSFW), but it is 100% unnecessary to read one to understand the other.

Rose has these little…habits, when she's working. 

 

Finn can't tell you how many times he's seen her stick extra tools in her mouth.Not just the one, mind you, but two or three or four, until she's got fangs made from spanners and wrenches protruding from her lips in all directions.

 

Then there's the talking (mumbling, more like it) to inanimate objects."Come on, little buddy," she'll say to a tricky valve or sparking wire."You can do it.I'm gonna get you working better; you just gotta let me."

 

Apparently, it helps.

 

His favorite by far, he thinks, is the humming and toe tapping.Some of the tunes he recognizes.Morale improvement hour (which was actually only _fifty_ minutes, mind you) once every two weeks did a very good job of acquainting Finn with the same 40 songs over and over, even if it did little to actually improve his or any one else's morale.Mostly, though, she chooses songs he doesn't know.Songs with rhythms he can't quite predict, melodies that sound slightly odd to his ears.

 

(He loves them.)

 

Sometimes she'll tap along to the songs on the pipes (giving Finn only the tiniest of heart attacks before he realizes that's what she's doing).Today, though, she's just tapping her foot.One, two, three, then two on the other foot.Back and forth she goes, swaying her hips slightly as she does it.Finn catches his gaze lingering a bit as she does before firmly turning his attention back to his work. 

 

There's not a huge amount of difference between First Order and Resistance tech, but there is just enough to be a pain, which is why he's mostly assigned to work details with Rose to supervise.

 

(He's not exactly going to complain at the set-up.)

 

He's so absorbed in his work (or, at least, absorbed with _seeming_ like he's absorbed in his work) that he doesn't notice her coming in to give him a light hip-check.

 

She's smiling up at him, but he's not quite sure what his response should be.

 

Sometimes troopers would show affection by walloping each other in the shoulder or in the gut.Ritualized, so others would know what the intent was, but aggressive enough that superiors wouldn't classify it as "clustering" and send the offenders for reprogramming. 

 

Loyalty to the group was good.Sentimentality was bad.

 

This is softer though.Not even meant to appear like anything aggressive.He waits probably a beat too long before mimicking her and swaying back to bump her hip with his.

 

She searches his face and he can tell _she_ can tell he's a bit confused.

 

She goes back to humming, this time making the sway of her hips a bit wider, a bit more intentional.She falls into a rhythm and then reaches out to a loop in his pants to pull him towards her as she moves towards him.

 

He _thinks_ he gets it and he bumps back and forth with her (mostly to the beat) while they try to rewire the auxiliary power unit.

 

When she finishes the song, he can't help but lean in a little still, not quite ready to give up the brush of physical contact.She doesn't move away either.

 

"I've always liked music," she says around a wrench that she's stuck in her mouth. "It's one of the things they couldn't ever really take away from us."

 

"Yeah?" he says, not exactly sure what he's asking, but he knows he wants to know more.Knows that this is _important._

 

"We never really had toys or holos or anything, but we'd all memorize a bunch of songs.Some of the elders knew _thousands_.Songs are pretty good for when you're bored or sad or happy or- well, pretty much anything, I suppose."

 

"What about you?" she says, taking the wrench out of her mouth and glancing up at him.

 

"Me?"

 

"Yeah, what sorta songs do you-" She stops, brows furrowing. "Wait, _do_ you know any songs?"

 

"Yeah, I know some," he says, a bit self-conscious. "I mean, not thousands.Probably not even hundreds, but they used to have these events once every two weeks and they’d play a couple of songs and stuff.”

 

"Was there a metric for how much fun you were having?" she asks sardonically, a tiny smirk playing at the edge of her mouth. “Gotta hit hit this quota or else?”

 

"Oh, definitely," he responds, tension easing in his shoulders at the joke. "Gotta make sure we all have just the right amount.Not too much, not too little.”

 

She chuckles a bit at that.Chews her lip.Hesitates, then, "Sing something."

 

What?No.Finn did _not_ sign up for this."Ummm…"

 

"Aw, come on!I promise I won't laugh.I just... I miss hearing other people sing.Or hum.People who aren’t just me.”

 

The empty space of her sister Paige hangs heavy between them, though neither of them say her name.

 

Finn starts humming.His voice isn't nearly good as Rose's (hers is just… _wow_ ), but it isn't bad.He chooses one with a pretty simple melody and, from what he remembers, vaguely romantic lyrics.Enough that it can definitely set the mood if Rose wants it to, but not so much that he won't have plausible deniability if she doesn't.He gets to the repeat-y bit when-

 

"Stars above, Finn, they _would_ choose this version," Rose interrupts, sounding almost personally offended, but he's not quite sure why.

 

"They? And, wait, there are other versions?"

 

He didn’t really know that was a thing.

 

"The First Order, dummy.And, yeah, there are dozens!Five that are _really_ good and bunch that are still at least _pretty_ good, but of course they just had to choose the one that makes the melody about ten times more boring and stilted than the original _and_ there's the fact that they completely drop the best verse!"

 

"The best verse?" he asks.(It seems like she's on a bit of a roll.)

 

"Yeah, you know- Well, know you wouldn't, would you?Well, it goes: 

 

_And in the place between the stars_

_We'll stand against it all_

_Hand it hand against it all_

_The burning fires of the-_

 

Oh, wait, yeah, okay, I think I see why they dropped that verse."

 

Finn thinks he probably knows, too.Uniting in defiance is not a big theme in what was considered acceptable music and he's pretty sure that the bit about the fire was probably not something the First Order really wanted people thinking about either.

 

“Sing me the real version, then,” he says in challenge.

 

“Yeah?” She’s chewing her lip and looking at his in a way that Finn now recognizes to mean good things.Apparently he did choose the right song, the right amount of mood-setting, even if his particular version is sub-par.

 

“How else am I supposed to learn it?” He smiles and holds her gaze in a way Poe has taught him is encouraging and a bit flirty. (He hopes he pulls it off alright.)

 

She blushes and looks away, but complies - starting off softly, but growing louder and brasher with each line.

 

She’s right, he has to admit.He knows next to nothing about music, but the First Order’s one-two-march version of this song is nothing to the lilting, skipping, sliding version Rose has chosen.The rhythm is great, too, and Rose must also think so because then she’s tapping and then she’s swaying and then she’s whipping out a full set of footwork that looks pretty complicated but also kind of fun.

 

Finn can’t help it; his foot starts tapping.

 

Rose notices.

 

Her smile widens as sashays her way over to him and puts one hand in his and the other on shoulder.

 

Finn panics. What the hell is he supposed to do now?He moves his hand slowly, very slowly up to Rose’s waist and - _yes_ \- she nods and he must have guessed right.

 

She keeps going, slowing down a bit and exaggerating her movements.Finn is staring at their feet and stumbling about and he’s pretty sure he’s the opposite of sexy right now.

 

She bursts into giggles and says, “Here,” adjusting their positions slightly.

 

“I’m gonna count it off so you’ll have to do the music,” she warns.

 

He doesn’t have the words, but he’s pretty sure he’s got the melody so he starts humming.

 

"One, two, three - up - no, the other foot. Yes, like that.Two, three, to the side and back."

 

She rattles off commands rhythmically while pushing him around.She's _tiny_ , but strong and soon they've more or less got it, twirling and tapping and swaying and it's alright as long as Rose is leading them around.

 

He's still looking at their feet more often than not.

 

Finn was in the top three for his training unit in nearly every possible agility test, but that’s not really translating into this particular…exercise.

 

When he steps on her foot for the fourth time, she giggles and drops her hand from his shoulder and puts it around his waist, burying her face against his chest.He's a bit embarrassed, but the feeling of Rose hugging him more than makes up for it.He laughs a bit too and then they're laughing together and that _definitely_ makes up for it.

 

When her giggles finally fade, she puts both of his hands tight around her waist and loops both hands around his neck and says, "Well, we can always try dancing this way."

 

She starts singing something soft and longing in a language he doesn't recognize and dancing, apparently, can mean as little as swaying back and forth with someone else.

 

Rose puts her ear against his chest and he knows she can hear the pounding of his heart, but Finn doesn't care.

 

~

 

Dancing and silliness and swaying aside, they're still done with their assignment half an hour early.Because, you see, Rose has got these little _habits_ when she's working, but she's still the best mechanic Finn has ever met.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, once again, to thejadesabre for the prompt!


End file.
